Just ordered a Trijicon green tritium night sight for my M1 Garand in hopes of making it my primary deer rifle this season. Anyone have experience shooting through a ghost ring at night with one of these? Not really night, but 30 mins after sunset. I can't see at sunset with the stock irons.
M1 Garand tritium sight for hunting season
- Thread starter mardanlin
- Start date
bamaranger
New member
Garand
I've hunted my Garand a bit, and have the same experience.....in dim light, I cannot get a sight picture. I'd wager I lose 15-20 min or more of shooting light with a peep. So much so that I will not hunt a peep in the evenings. On rifle or bow.
From my experience bow hunting, and using a peep on the bowstring, with a trit pin or lit pin, you will see the trit dot, but finding the deer through the peep will still be difficult.
One thing I've considered for the Garand, is one of the scout scope mounts and a coarse reticuled low power IER scope. You could even put a red dot up there. Such an arrangement on my Savage Scout / bolt works OK.
Yeah, optic on a Garand, non traditional for sure, but it likely will help.
I've hunted my Garand a bit, and have the same experience.....in dim light, I cannot get a sight picture. I'd wager I lose 15-20 min or more of shooting light with a peep. So much so that I will not hunt a peep in the evenings. On rifle or bow.
From my experience bow hunting, and using a peep on the bowstring, with a trit pin or lit pin, you will see the trit dot, but finding the deer through the peep will still be difficult.
One thing I've considered for the Garand, is one of the scout scope mounts and a coarse reticuled low power IER scope. You could even put a red dot up there. Such an arrangement on my Savage Scout / bolt works OK.
Yeah, optic on a Garand, non traditional for sure, but it likely will help.
I thought about buying the rail and putting a red dot on it (can't stand scout scopes personally, just never felt comfortable with them) but the rail is so dang expensive, $180. I'd have $250 in it by the time I bought a sight top so for $70 I think I'll try this tritium sight for now.
If it doesn't work well I can always return it and invest in a rail. I will let you know how it goes in case you were debating getting one of these.
If it doesn't work well I can always return it and invest in a rail. I will let you know how it goes in case you were debating getting one of these.
In case you were waiting for a follow up, it seems to work better the darker it gets. In daylight you can't tell it's there and when it's dim (about 30mins after sunset) you can still see it easily, but the peep hole obstructs a portion of the target surrounding the front bead.
I think I'll hang onto it and give it a try when rifle season opens up.
I think I'll hang onto it and give it a try when rifle season opens up.
tahunua001
New member
are you hunting deer at night?
Dirty_Harry
New member
Even with the new sights I think it would be impossible. Would be hard to see the deer.
It is one of the several reasons I dont take the M1A hunting.
It is one of the several reasons I dont take the M1A hunting.
30 minutes after sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise is perfectly legal for deer hunting where I live. Not sure why that's so difficult to understand for some of you. Secondly, you obviously have never looked through an M1 peep hole at night. Yes, you are looking through it, but because the lighting is not adequate the peep hole gets blurred, thus, obstructing a large portion of the target, especially at distances beyond 150yds. By "bead" I meant the illuminated portion of the front sight post, but if you feel the need to split hairs more power to you.
tahunua001
New member
30 minutes after sunset is still pretty darned light, at least it is up here in this neck of the woods. and I have used an M1 garand in low light, not much problem really. peeps are actually better for low light than leafs as the leafs can lose definition in the dark.
The peep hole is typically smaller than the pupil of the eye when the eye is dilated for low light conditions and therefore restricts how much light reaches the retina as compared to what would reach the retina without the peep sight being in the way. It's a partial obstruction.
Peep sights work very well in bright light. As the light dims, a point will be reached where things are visible but aren't visible through the peep because the relatively small opening in the peep won't let enough of the light reflected from the target through to the shooter's eye.
A tritium sight will make it possible to see the sight through the peep in dim conditions, but if the un-illuminated sight won't show up through the peep, I doubt the deer will either. That's unless, for some reason the conditions illuminate the deer more brightly than the sight. In other words, unless the problem is that you're shooting from a shaded position that makes your front sight too dark to see through the peep while the deer is in brighter conditions that allow it to be seen through the peep then the night sight will just make it possible to aim precisely at something you won't be able to see. Probably not a big improvement.
Took it out hunting last night and could barely see at 10 minutes after sunset, certainly not well enough to take an ethical shot past 60yds so back to midway it goes. The rail and a low power red dot will most likely be my next purchase. As long as all my modifications are reversible I don't worry much about how traditional it is.
I have plenty of synthetic stock hunting rifles and a few wooden stocks including a Weatherby but honestly nothing feels as good in my hands as my Garand. Perfect stock length and weight for that caliber, to me anyway. I've shot more rounds through my Garand than any of my hunting rifles, add the fact it can do a MOA at 100yds and I feel pretty darn compelled to take it out in the woods.
I also like that it's semi automatic and I can use close range sights instead of scopes for a change. If a shot is less than 150yds a scope usually makes me shoot a lot slower and makes me over critique my shot placement.
May seem silly to some but hunting with an M1 seems like a dream to me, but I don't deface a classic so like I said, considering I can achieve that without permanent modification, it seems like a no brainer to me.
Different strokes I suppose.
I also like that it's semi automatic and I can use close range sights instead of scopes for a change. If a shot is less than 150yds a scope usually makes me shoot a lot slower and makes me over critique my shot placement.
May seem silly to some but hunting with an M1 seems like a dream to me, but I don't deface a classic so like I said, considering I can achieve that without permanent modification, it seems like a no brainer to me.
Different strokes I suppose.
